Elato atoll, Micronesia

Elato, small atoll with less then 100 inhabitants, lay's about 20 Nautical miles west from Lamotrek, we were invited to this atoll, by the chief because some outboards engines had a problem, and I was ask to have a look at them, we did not need to pay the landing fee, which is normally between 10 and 20 USD a person.

Arrival at Elato

The men's house in Elato.

Sitting in the men's house with chief John.

Glenda in the school

Teacher Vincent.

Women like to make crowns of flowers, and give then to their husbands or loved ones.

In Elato the men catch plenty turtle, they divide the meat and eggs, nothing gets wasted, even the intestines got eaten, we have eaten them raw, cut in pieces with some soya sauce., as a snack.

the men cutting and dividing the turtle meat. 

                                     It is John's birthday, he receives some extra turtle eggs.

When the slaughter is over the dogs me clean the table.

Glenda bringing popcorn to the school.

Young girl learning how to waif a basket  from a coconut leaf.

Class for the young kids to learn how to waif a basket

Local kitchen, women spend daily much time on cooking.

Barbecue with turtle meat. 

John and his family.

No wind today

Carlos making the handle for a cutting tool.

                                                              Helena on anchor.

Coral for the baby.

Local manner of fishing, they look under water to see the fish bite.

Kids playing cards.

Steve showing the start of his carving, a dolphin.

 This carving is made for the navigators, to calm down the sea when there is a storm.

Glenda enjoying the lady's. in Elato, 

On mothers day we were invited to Massi's house, to a lovo, this is a local way of preparing the food, lets say its the Fiji bbq style. 

First the meat gets prepared in some leaves, this is a pig leg.

 This is the kitchen fire, but today we cook outside.

A fire is made outside, and stone's are heated up in the fire.

Some pieces of food are packed in aluminium paper.

After burning for a while, and the stones are very hot, the burning wood gets taken out, Massi is doing it with a stick.

Very hot stone's

Stone's get covered with hard banana leaves.

The food gets on top.

Everything gets covered with more leaves.

fully covered.

Plastic bags over the heap.

 Everything gets covered with earth.

It gets completely covered, so that the food gets steamed inside the heap.

After the lovo is finished its church time at 10H30 in the morning.

Children at the church.

The Church.

Today, on mothers day, the women may lead the service.

Mo saying something out of the bible, the whole service was Fijian spoken.

 Glenda with some children.

The women from the church.

Me and Massi.

Me and Mo, you can see that the little girl is his daughter.

Preparing more food, this is the vegetable daruka, very tasty.

Sitting outside the house.

Mo and his wife are also there, almost the whole village is family.

Left is Mo's older daughter, and Millie, wife of Massi.

Mo's wife preparing the kava.

After about three hours in the ground, they gonna open the lovo.

The earth is steaming hot.

The food is taken out.

The big tuna fish head on the plate.

Casava, sweet patatoe, yucca, batata, all ready to eat.

The pork leg, ready to eat.

Drinking kava.

The kava boil.

Glenda drinking kava.

The food is ready to eat.

Very tasty and plenty of food.

 We had a good meal.

Enjoying the meal.

 Drinking more kava after the meal.

The church and houses from a distance, when we walk back to the marina and Helena.
Thank you Massi and Millie for this wonderful day with you and your family.